Social media has brought the world to our desktop where information is available at a click of a button. The issues now are not just related to a particular community, region, state, or country; they are global. We attach to them directly or indirectly and share our opinions on them, which is an easy and powerful way to contribute toward addressing issues we care about.

The much-celebrated Swachh Bharat Mission, a three-year-old flagship program aimed at improving sanitation in our country, has been one topic that has attracted everyone’s attention. A recent newsletter of India Water Portal, a special issue focusing on the World Toilet Day, November 19, talked about facts related to sanitation and featured interesting articles and blogs on how poor sanitation adversely impacts health, coupled with some hard-hitting photo essays. Articles reveal the terrible plight of people forced to scavenge to survive in India, and how they continue to suffer due to deep-rooted inequities that cut across Indian society. One article, titled “Sanitation must go beyond shame and stigma” by Seetha Gopalakrishnan, featured the author’s perspectives from a conference held in 2016 at S M Sehgal Foundation, the nonprofit organization where I work. This inspired me to pen down some of the other initiatives we have taken since then. Two key initiatives include a series of radio programs on the theme aiming at behavior change, and the other on preparing citizens to be sanitation ambassadors to provide strength to sanitation drives in their villages.

World Toilet Day, what’s this?

World Toilet Day is an international day officially observed by the United Nations to address the global sanitation crisis. Each year the day is marked by worldwide public education campaigns and events to raise awareness. According to the UN report card, close to 946 million people in the world have little or no access to sanitation and continue to practice open defecation. According to the 2011 census, 53.1 percent (63.6 percent in 2001) of households in India do not have a toilet, with a percentage being as high as 69.3 percent (78.1 percent in 2001) in rural areas, and 18.6 percent (26.3 percent in 2001) in urban areas. Regardless of the specific percentages, clearly, a large chunk of our population still heads to the fields to relieve themselves, some at dawn, some at dusk, and some in the still of the day or night where not many are around, to fulfill nature’s call.

A special initiative of Sehgal Foundation utilizes community media, i.e. community radio, which is considered to be one of oldest forms of oral media, also understood to be local, cost-effective, and easy-to-access grassroots forms of communication. Community radio Alfaz-e-Mewat FM 107.8, operational since 2012, broadcasts thirteen hours daily to over 200 villages of Nuh district, Haryana, sharing information and awareness about sanitation issues as well as other community concerns.

Does gender have anything to do with sanitation?

A Swachh Bharat Mission mass media campaign shows actress Vidya Balan promoting the sanitation message. Women are in the greatest need for toilets because of their biological formation (menstruation, child bearing) and the societal stigma attached to the female gender that renders them more vulnerable to harassment. Women (celebrities especially) can usually attract audiences and persuade more effectively.

Toilets: ease or ordeal?

Thinking back to a community radio series broadcast a year ago titled “Shochalay Mere Angana” (toilet in my backyard) that explored the gender and sanitation link, I was reminded of the midsized village of Bhadas in Nuh district, Haryana, where we, a bunch of community radio workers, gathered to meet a small group of rural women basking in the sun, to understand how important toilets were to them. The discussion taught us a lesser-known fact that each one of them realized the importance of sanitation, but there was more to their stories—the ordeals these women faced each day to relieve themselves and the failure of processes and systems that could have enabled the dream of a clean India to come true.

The first few meetings and discussions propelled conversations to know each other better, establish that rapport (trust came much later), then to learn about difficulties and health impacts they faced due to lack of toilets. Simple yet astonishing, heartfelt yet disheartening, eager but hopeless narratives surrounded us. And we were being watched, watched by the husbands of some of the women present in the group who wanted to see what conversations were going on.

The women’s pain was vivid. They shared that when they are not able to relieve themselves in the wee hours, they had to control it for the whole day, waiting for darkness. Some reported that male decision-makers of the family said they would only construct toilets when the government subsidy is received, and some have toilets constructed but don’t use them. An incident shared by a woman from a Balmiki household showed how gender roles influence access to sanitation. She said in a subdued voice, “I should not be sharing this with joy but, what repeated reminders to male members of the family about constructing toilets could not do, a small accident that left my husband immobile did: His leg was fractured and he could not go out to defecate, which translated into toilet construction at home. We were really happy.”

That radio programming was one of our first attempts by Alfaz-e-Mewat to see our government’s program on Mission Clean India through a gender lens. And the message rings loud in my memory because it remains true. Just as charity begins at home, sanitation and hygiene starts with you and me—and the effort goes hand in hand with the goal of gender equity and equality.

(Arti Manchanda Grover is program leader, Communications, S M Sehgal Foundation)

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Dhana village, Faruknagar tehsil of Gurugram district, Haryana, is one of five villages Sehgal Foundation and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. are collaborating with on a project called “Swacchta hai to swaasthya hai” (cleanliness brings health). Dhana is primarily inhabited by the Jat community who strongly adhere to their customs and traditions. Bringing together and mobilizing this community for a cleanliness drive in their village was challenging, but progress is being made. Community engagement in sanitation issues is transforming challenges into opportunities.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. had helped build sanitation infrastructures but the community was not willing to maintain them. So Sehgal Foundation carried out sanitation campaigns to sensitize and mobilize the community and engage them in village development so that the cleanliness efforts in the village could be sustained.

At first, villagers said, “Cleaning the village is not required, it will not render any result, and we do not have time for this activity!”

The team organized a door-to-door campaign to enrol villagers in sanitation activities. They tried to convince people to participate in meetings to discuss cleanliness and sanitation. When community members did not show up for the meetings, the team felt disheartened, but they did not give up. They continued working with renewed enthusiasm to partner with the community.

The team organized meetings for the convenience of community members, created ward-level committees, and held interactive sessions with these committees. They conducted sessions on sanitation with schoolchildren and vendors in the village, organized International Women’s Day with a sanitation theme, and conducted informative sessions on health-related hazards due to poor sanitation. Their persistence paid off as the villagers gradually started understanding the need for sanitation. They eventually joined together on their own and organized a sanitation drive in their village.

Initially, women had not stepped out to participate in these events as they were reluctant to enter the public sphere, so Sehgal Foundation’s women team members held separate sessions with women. As a result, women came forward, geared-up with brooms, gloves, and masks, to clean their village. Gathering momentum, they joined together to clean a huge garbage dump in the village.

Inspired and encouraged by working in this village, the foundation team planned similar campaigns in Baliana village in Rohtak and three villages of Gurugram: Baas Hariya, Bas Kushala, and Kasan. The community paved their own way in making their villages clean and created a slogan “Hum sab ne thana hai, gaon swacch banana hai!” (Together we have vowed to make our village clean!).

(Ashok Dash is project coordinator at S M Sehgal Foundation. He manages the Maruti Suzuki India. Ltd. project on sanitation.)

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“I make my children sit on the wooden legs of the cot if they get nature’s call at night so that the pressure can go up, because I cannot take my young kids for defecating alone at night,” explains Kanta of Hamirpur village in the Alwar district of Rajasthan.

Women suffer

Such instances were common as women discussed issues relating to open defecation during a Sehgal Foundation research team visit to the five-villages Samra Panchayat (village council) in Thanagazi block, where only five out of 1,409 households had toilets before 2014, and those five were nonworking. Women avoid defecation in the dark due to their fear of wild animals, such as lions, boars, etc., in the nearby jungle. There is no other place available for releasing the pressure. Women are scared to defecate alone at night. Men never accompany them and they often feel too shy to ask other women to accompany them. Several women either do not eat or reduce their food intake to half after dark to avoid the need to defecate.

The unease for girls, new mothers, and elderly women

Young girls must go even farther away during their menstruation, searching for isolated places where male members of the family cannot see them defecate. They are always wary while changing clothing as well. The absence of toilets further worsens the plight of ill and pregnant ladies who cannot walk long in search of a place to defecate. Elders and women suffering from diarrhea are therefore forced to defecate close to the houses, leaving a bad smells behind and fecal matter that becomes a breeding place for houseflies/insects, which puts the health of everyone in the family at risk.
The other side
On the one hand, men seem to be comfortable defecating openly. Being farmers, they need to visit their crop fields early in the morning, which is the preferred defecation time for most adult men. They do not wait for someone else to accompany them to defecate or wait for the cover of darkness as women usually do. Unlike women and girls, males do not “schedule” defecation but rather defecate whenever the need arises, either on their way to or returning from their fields.

The population has not been aware of all the initiatives taken by the government of India to encourage toilet construction. Government of India has launched various sanitation programs starting with the Central Rural Sanitation Program in 1986 to the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014 to promote toilet construction because it affects the dignity of women and girls the most. The Swachh Bharat Mission to clean India’s cities and villages provides a revised monetary incentive to below poverty line and identified above poverty line households. This includes up to INR 12,000 for the construction of one individual household latrine with water availability, including water for hand washing and cleaning of the toilet.

Reaping results of effective mobilization

Sehgal Foundation, in collaboration with Coca-Cola India Foundation, intervened in these villages in 2014 with the aim of mobilizing and sensitizing communities towards health and sanitation issues leading to toilet construction. Foundation staff used information education and communication materials such as pamphlets designed in an easily comprehensible manner by the community for conducting trainings on the benefits of constructing toilets, emphasizing clean surroundings, safety, and ease of use. These trainings were conducted every month separately for males and females in the villages to address the sanitation issues and spread awareness about the Swachh Bharat Mission and its monetary incentives for toilet construction. The outcome of this community mobilization and awareness has been toilet construction in 25 to 30 percent of the households. Among households with toilets, around 50 percent are not using the toilet. This indicates that the use of a sanitation facility is equally or may be more important than just having access to the sanitation facility. Open defecation continues to be a socially and culturally accepted traditional behavior by the community. Females reported that males are often not supportive of toilet construction, but some women mentioned that lack of water and money prevents us from not having a sanitation facility.

A long way to go

The major thrust of all sanitation campaigns should be to promote attitudinal change that will create demand and further lead to improved access. In the long term, behavior change communication is imperative to sensitize people to use sanitation facilities and appreciate the positive aspects associated with it. Behavioral aspects vary by gender and age. Any sanitation intervention, instead of merely achieving targets, needs to consider the above aspects that can inform adequate approaches to tackle the issue of sanitation and behavior change holistically.

(Rukhsat Hussain is a senior research associate at Sehgal Foundation.)

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Sanitation is a global issue affecting the health and well-being of entire region. It is the process of providing services and facilities for safe human waste disposal to maintain public hygiene. Using clean toilets, access to safe water, and proper disposal of garbage are the core ingredients of sanitation process. According to UNICEF, only 21% of rural population in India was using toilets in 2008. To promote the usage of toilets, Nirmal Gram Purasskar (NGP) was introduced under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA) scheme. Under this, the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) played an important role in mobilizing the community to adopt better sanitation practices by rewarding those who construct toilets at home. The incentives vary from Rs 50 thousand to Rs 50 lakh, depending upon the level and size of PRI.

The question that comes here is how far has the scheme achieved success? Has it turned around the poor sanitation conditions in rural areas? Is NGP a motivating factor for PRIs to achieve sanitation targets or something else needs to be done? To find answers to these questions and many others, Sehgal Foundation has conducted a study in two villages – Nainangla and Bukharaka – with similar socio-economic conditions. Both these villages are located in same geographical region, i.e., administrative block of Mewat, Haryana.

Nainangla had received Nirmal Gram Purasskar in 2011. Qualitative research in the village was carried out to find out whether the recorded number of toilets[1] exists in reality and how far efforts of the panchayat have been able to transform the sanitation condition of village. The research found that the real picture was different from the data in the government records. Interactions with the community revealed that very few toilets were constructed when the village was awarded NGP. Even after three years of receiving the award, the village has only 40-50% toilets of the recorded number. The construction of toilets was undertaken in 2013, after the government announced that the construction cost can be claimed from the government. Household toilet construction in Nainangla is done by two groups. Those, who already had toilets, renovated them to avail benefits under the scheme, and those who constructed new toilets. Since the need for toilets was not realized, the usage of constructed toilets was found to be limited. Inhabitants are still seen defecating in open. Furthermore, in the absence of proper drainage system, the wastewater rushes down the streets in few uncovered naalis (drains).

We also found out that very few people in the village were aware of the Nirmal Gram Purasskar scheme. They also revealed that instead of facilitating toilet construction, Sarpanch distributed the construction materials to few households in an ad-hoc manner, rendering it insufficient for construction. With such attitude, the aim of NGP is completely defeated and the scheme turned into another money making opportunity for Sarpanch and his allies.

On the contrary, our study at Bukharaka village has portrayed an altogether different picture. The village has better sanitation situation in spite of not being awarded with NGP. The question here is “what could mobilize villagers of Bukharaka but not of Nainangla?”

S M Sehgal foundation has been working in Bukharaka to build the capacities of Village-Level Institutions (VLIs) and community since 2013. The success of this capacity building exercise is reflected in 75% (approximately) households that opted for toilet construction in 2014. A year back, it had roughly 2% household toilet coverage. Also, the streets in the village are clean, most of them being constructed in last year. The village also fares well in the usage of toilet. No one practices open defecation now. Villagers informed that they were motivated to construct toilet, in return of their entitled financial assistance under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA). However, once they started using toilets, they realized the ease and benefits of fixed point defecation. They further mentioned that they are not concerned about the pending subsidy. The remaining 25% households are also motivated to undertake construction seeing the benefits received by their neighbors.

The comparison is indicative of the fact that monetary incentive alone cannot stimulate rural inhabitants to adopt better sanitary practices. Instead, consistent mobilization of the community is needed to be able to achieve targets.

Are we ready to invest in the slow mobilization process?

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